The present invention concerns envelope depositories, especially envelope depositories for use in automatic teller machines ("ATM's") but also useful in other applications.
Typically an ATM includes a depository for receiving envelopes enclosing cash, checks or other items a customer wishes to deposit. Usually, the envelope is inserted end first into a horizontal slot in a front wall of the ATM. A conveyor then grasps the envelope and carries it generally rearwardly during which travel a printer stamps one face of the envelope with various indicia including the date, the customer's identification number, the time of day, and the amount of the deposit. The envelope is then discharged from the conveyor and dropped or otherwise directed into a secure collector bin which is later removed and emptied at the bank or the like.
Since the envelope travels more or less horizontally through the conveyor it must change direction in order thereafter to drop into the bin. In some depositories the envelope merely falls off the conveyor directly into the bin; in others an additional mechanism rearward of the conveyor diverts or transports the envelope sideways before dropping it into the bin. In the former types special precautions are necessary to defeat "fishing" of envelopes from the bin or "trapping" of an envelope after it has passed the conveyor but before it drops into the bin. This is typically achieved by a pair of gates disposed forward and rearward of the conveyor, the rearward gate being closed when the forward one is open and vice versa so there is never an unobstructed path between the envlope slot in the front of the ATM and the collector bin. In the latter types the mechanism so changes the path of the envelope between the conveyor and the bin as to defeat any "fishing" or "trapping" effort but does so at the cost of added complexity and additional space requirements within the ATM housing.